Trump refutes collusion with Russia yet states he ‘promotes himself’

The president, at a remarkable press conference, was forced to deny he had done anything worthy of criminal charges calling Russia crisis a witch hunt

Donald Trump denied any collusion with Russia in the 2016 election but said on Thursday he spoke for myself, leaving open for the first time the possibility that some of his staff may have been involved.

The president claimed he was the target of the greatest witch hunt in US political history and complained that the campaign against him was dividing the country. But requested information about the justice department decision to appoint a special counseling, Robert Mueller, to analyse contacts between his campaign and Russia, Trump appeared to change his position from previous blanket denials.

I respect the move, but the entire thing has been a witch hunt. There is no collusion surely myself and my campaign but I can always speak for myself and the Russians zero, he told at a joint press conference with the Colombian president, Juan Manuel Santos.

Trumps embattled presidency, which has invited increasingly frequent comparison with Richard Nixon and Watergate, passed a new landmark at the press conference when he was asked bluntly, in front of a foreign head of state, whether he recalled anything he had done that might be worthy of criminal charges in these investigation or impeachment.

I think it is totally ridiculous. Everybody thinks so, Trump said.

Mueller is taking over a sprawling investigation into links between the Trump camp and Russia from the former FBI director James Comey, who the president fired abruptly on 9 May. It is expected to include scrutiny of Trumps fired national security consultant, Michael Flynn, as well as his former campaign administrator, Paul Manafort, and two former advisors, Carter Page and Roger Stone, and their contacts with Russian officials. All have denied collusion in Russian efforts to skewed the election.

When asked whether he had recommended Comey to shut down the Flynn investigation, Trump speedily replied: No. No. Next question.

He then embarked on a vitriolic attack on his former FBI director, claiming Comey had been very unpopular with most people who had had a poor, poor performance in Congress. He appeared to change his justification for the decision, pointing to a critical memo on Comeys performance by the deputy us attorney general, Rod Rosenstein.

This was the original reason provided by the White House in the immediate aftermath of Comeys dismissal, but two days later Trump revealed in a NBC interview: It was put in a while ago.

Senators emerging from a closed-door meeting with Rosenstein on Thursday said he had told them that he believed that the decision to fire the FBI director had already been induced before he wrote his memo.

Dick Durbin of Illinois, the number two Democrat in the Senate, told reporters that Rosenstein knew of the presidents decision to fire him and then he wrote his memo. This was echoed by several other Senate Democrat, including Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Jeff Merkley of Oregon. Merkley carried particular frustration with Rosenstein, “says hes” either has no recognizing also that his memo was used as a coverup or doesnt want to take any accountability for it.

Republicans were more hesitant to characterize Rosensteins statements inside the closed briefing. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana told reporters that at one point Rosenstein told no decision is final until its finalized.

Marco Rubio of Florida simply told, when asked if Rosenstein knew Comey would be fired when he wrote the memoranda: Im not sure if he addressed that with a level of clarity that most people wanted.

At Thursdays press conference, Trump said his administration look forward to get all these things behind us.

Believe me “were not receiving” collusion. Russia is fine, the president said. He claimed that the FBI had spoiled its reputation in its investigations of the presidential campaigns in last years elections.

I cherish the FBI. Its special. All over the world wherever you go, the FBI is special, he told, before adding: The FBI has not had that special reputation with what happened in the campaign, what happened with the Clinton campaign, and even you could say, directly and indirectly with respect to the much more successful Trump campaign.

Earlier in the day, Trump lashed out in a pair of tweets at Rosensteins decision to hire Mueller, a former FBI director, as special counsel.

With all of the illegal acts that took place in the Clinton campaign and Obama administration, there was never a special councel[ sic] appointed! he wrote in the first tweet. He afterward corrected the spelling of counsel. This is the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in American history!

Later in the day, Trump said the appointment of a special counseling was a very negative thing that hurts our country awfully because it shows were a divided, mixed-up , not unified country.

It also happens to be a pure excuse for the Democrats, having lost an election that they should have easily won because of the electoral college being slanted so much in their way thats all this is, Trump told television news anchors during a briefing on Thursday afternoon, according to transcripts posted by several attendees. I think it presents division, and it shows that were not together as a country.

A report from the New York Times alleged that Flynn had told the presidents transition squad weeks before being appointed that he was under federal investigation for working, in secret, as a paying lobbyist for Turkey.

Asked about that on Thursday, representative for Mike Pences office issued a statement that read: The vice-president stands by his comments in March upon first hearing the news considering General Flynns ties to Turkey, and fully supports the presidents decision to ask for General Flynns resignation. In March, Pence said about Flynns work for Turkey: Hearing that story today was the first I heard of it.

McClatchy on Wednesday reported that Flynn had intervened to stop a military plan to retake Raqqa, the Islamic States de facto capital, with Syrian Kurdish forces a move consistent with the desire of Turkey.

On Thursday, Reuters reported that the Trump campaign had at least 18 undisclosed contacts with Russian spies, several more than previously reported.

A bipartisan chorus of lawmakers have called on Comey to testify publicly in the wake of the report that Trump had pressured him to stop the investigation into Flynn, a request that Comey reportedly noted in a memo circulated with senior staff.

The Senate intelligence committee, one of two congressional committees analyse Russian interference, has asked Comey to testify before the committee in both public and private sessions. The committee has also sent a request to acting FBI director Andrew McCabe seeking any notes or memorandum drawn up by the former director considering any communications he may have had with senior White House and Department of Justice officers related to investigations into Russias efforts.

As special counsel, Mueller will command broad powers, including the power to subpoena documents and prosecute any crimes, independent of Congress. Calls on Capitol Hill for a special attorney in the investigation have percolated for months, but spiked after the firing of Comey, who was resulting an FBI investigation into the matter. The independence of the investigation fell into question after the firing.

Democrats, who had called for a special counsel, welcomed Muellers appointment, along with a number of Republicans who have come to position the near daily revelations as an obstacle to their legislative agenda.

On a day of fast-moving developments, Richard Burr, the chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, told a lawyer for Flynn had told the intelligence committee that his client would not comply with the members of the commission subpoena for personal documents related to the committees own probe.

Flynn, through his lawyer, had earlier asked for immunity from unjust prosecution in exchange for agreeing to cooperate with the committee.

But the committee subsequently seemed to correct Burrs remarks, saying it had not yet received a response from Flynns lawyer.

If Flynn were to refuse to honor the subpoena, that could leave him in contempt of Congress, but the Republican on the Senate intelligence committee would decide how far to push Flynn to get him to comply.

If hes genuinely telling the equivalent of nuh-uh, its really hard to see how Burr can justify not treating that as contempt, told Josh Chafetz, a Cornell University law professor and expert on congressional investigations. That would be saying that, Every subpoena we issue is entirely optional.

Subpoenas arent optional, so its disdain of Congress, he added. Contempt of Congress has been a federal crime since the 19 th century, Chafetz told.

Before the committee detects someone in disdain, usually, theres an attempt to negotiate and come to some sort of settlement, said Chafetz.